# Balkan Sobranie 759



## American Psycho-Analyst (Aug 14, 2007)

*BENDEDICTION TO THE MUSES:*

Oh ye heavenly muses, if only for a moment adopt my mortal tongue and inspire within it the pointed insight requisite to describe this ineffably transcendent and divine tobacco. For without thy help, I do sincerely dread that the task before me will prove too great for my meager verbal talents. Have pity for a destitute mortal and wing him on with the heavenly genius so that he might succeed in describing to his comrades the golden vistas he has just seen.

*MORE INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION, WRITTEN IN THE MODERN STYLE:*

This Balkan Sobranie 759 is from a recently opened tin of the 1970s vintage. I chose to smoke the first bowl of it in my Peterson Cara bent bulldog. I have a highly ambivalent relationship with this pipe and consider it to be of dubious worth, yet, it performed smartly with this blend. For that this pipe is now sacred.

*APPEARANCE AND SMELL OF THE 1970s BALKAN SOBRANIE 759:*

759 is a very fine-cut ribbon tobacco that looks like any modern balkan (read, Sobranie immitation balkans), yet it has that unmistakable Sobranie smell, a smell of chocolate and earth.

*FINAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:*

I packed a generous bowl using the Frank method. I use a Calibri single torch lighter to light all my bowls. This bowl was no exception.

*SOBRANIE 759:*

Upon lighting I remarked nothing special, indeed, if only for a moment, it reminded me strongly of the bowl of Yenidje Highlander that I had just smoked: powerful, spicy and with a bit of a bite. However, and this only took a few seconds, the genuine character of the Sobranie revealed itself to my privileged tastebuds. This is a strong smoke. This is a smoke that successfully concatenates a series of complementary gustatory sensations: earthiness, saltiness, spiciness etc. The ash produced by the 759 is not as fine as the remarkably snow-white ash produced by the Original Smoking Mixture Sobranie (an ash rather like that of a fine cigar), in fact, within the bowl, are traces of orange amidst the predominantly gray ash. I don't know precisely what to say about this tobacco except that it is excellent, except that it is a tradgedy that such blends as this are no longer available. It is said that the Pythia of Delphi basked in fumes of psychoactive character released from the bedrock of the Oracle before crafting the oracles for which these priestesses have become infamous. She might as well have been smoking Sobranie 759, for, one of the unmistakable products of the smoke is a sense of calm well-being and poetic meditativeness. How else could one possibly react to a blend so perfectly balanced, so very much like consuming the finest culinary productions available, a blend which produces a smoke as thick as incense? I am sharply aware that I have here failed to convey the majesty of this blend of the choicest tobacco leaves on the globe, but, what can I say beyond that I am in awe of the blend?

Thanks Bruce, what a great experience I've had!


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## bonggoy (Mar 9, 2006)

759


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## American Psycho-Analyst (Aug 14, 2007)

bonggoy said:


> 759


I suppose you've had this? So delicious....


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## tedski (Oct 1, 2004)

Nice review.

Cliff Notes version for you college kids and folks with short attention spans ... "It's damn good!" :dr


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## bonggoy (Mar 9, 2006)

American Psycho-Analyst said:


> I suppose you've had this? So delicious....


Not yet. I always get outbid and I pass on a golden opportunity when one was available.


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